En Vazhi Thani Vazhi Review: Unique, Indeed

En Vazhi Thani Vazhi is a showcase for leading man RK’s wide collection of sunglasses and coats that swish with style. He plays Vetriselvan, a curiously dead-eyed encounter specialist, whose fiery moustache is as wild as his propensity to shoot the baddies. A gun is never far away from his hands, as is Meenaxi Dixit, who plays an encounter specialist aspirant, if there’s such a thing as that.

An honest to good Tamizhan cop, he goes on a rampage whenever the mafia tries to buy him. In a scene that is a particular favourite of ours, a don asks him his price, to which RK responds, “un uyir dhaanda“. Cue in applause and wolf whistles. The rest of the film is just like this scene in essence – (unwittingly) witty one liners, and villains who are solely interested in bumping off Vetriselvan (that’s how much of a threat he is). Also, a couple of romantic numbers in exotic locales. Just so we don’t forget that Vetri is something of a ladies’ man as well. Poonam Kaur is of importance in these portions; she dances to Harmonil Thee in the desert and offers up comparisons of herself – she is a mixture of Sherlyn Chopra and Cleopatra apparently. Also, the part of the moon that Armstrong didn’t touch. Lyricist Ilayakamban at his very best.

Rajarathinam’s camera follows RK’s tall frame faithfully, and Poonam Kaur’s too, in the few frames that she is in. Srikanth Deva gives us a lot of dishoom in his background score, and some pleasant tracks as well. But not ones that linger on till the credits roll.

*****

The surprise factors here are former stars Rajiv Krishna, whom we remember from his stint on Aaha, and Roja donning villain roles. The former is a member of the local mafia, intent on getting his own way, while the latter plays an MP, who rides the sympathy vote to victory in the elections after the brutal murder of her husband. Both of them have their own agenda in wanting RK taken off the face of earth, and hatch equally insane plans to go about it. Rajiv is quite unconvincing as the baddie, there are shades of the spoilt little rich boy villain from VIP in him. It is Roja who is the real revelation. She is consistently manic and over the top, actually managing to make even RK look a little scared for his life.

Full points of course to director Shaji Kailash and writer Prabhakaran, who have managed to keep the film fairly entertaining, despite its done to death plot. Problem is, this wasn’t meant to be an entertaining film; but a dark and thrilling one.

*****

The En Vazhi Thani Vazhi Review is a Silverscreen original article. It was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the movie. Silverscreen.in and its writers do not have an advertising relationship with movies that are reviewed on the site.